


Not your fault

by thoughtfullyyoungduck



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Adoption, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fights, Fluff, Gen, In the second chapter at least, Multi, Pennywise (IT) Being an Asshole, not in the first
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-13
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-19 06:55:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22740526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thoughtfullyyoungduck/pseuds/thoughtfullyyoungduck
Summary: Bill, Stan and Richie have a fight with their daughter present.
Relationships: Bill Denbrough/Richie Tozier/Stanley Uris, Bill denbrough as a parent, Richie Tozier x OC, Richie tozier as a parent, Stanley Uris x OC, bill denbrough x OC, stanley uris as a parent, stenbroughzier, stenbrozier - Relationship
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	1. not your fault

Bill’s hand in his did nothing to calm Stan down. Stan was, to put it simply, seething. Richie and their daughter were laughing, but Stan couldn’t help but grimace. The seven year old was seated on Richie’s lap, while Richie was rocking the both of them back and forth. Emily, the name of the young girl, was giggling like her life depended on it. Her smile was bright and radiant and Stan begrudgingly had to admit that she as having the time of her life. Still, it wasn’t enough to take Stan’s mind of the fact that Richie had not listened to the agreement that was made between them and Bill.

The latter was sitting with his legs crossed on the side of the couch, his lips stretched into a wide and unhesitating smile reaching his arm out behind Emily, just in case Richie leaned forward too much, and she fell. Stan gripped the newspaper stronger in his hands, he needed to have a word with both Bill and Richie, but he was responsible enough to realize that the conversation was not one they needed to have in front of their daughter. Emily’s wavy black hair were swooped up and down, each time Richie leaned forward again.

Stan couldn’t handle it. The constant back and forth was driving him crazy, he needed peace and quit and order, for some reason the rocking made his skin crawl. Still, when Emily’s green eyes focused on his, Stan’s lips too turned into a smile, displaying all his love for her.

In the two years she had been with the family, Stan, nor Bill or Richie had even been mad at her. It was something about her, that made you forget all your worries and just focus solely on her.

She hadn’t done anything either, Stan was mad at Richie, and maybe even a little at Bill, but not at Emily.

She smiled back and reached her arms out towards Stan, and Stan without question put his newspaper down and opened his arms to sweep her into them. He kissed her forehead, a habit he developed right after she moved in, and tucked her tightly into his chest. Just having her this close made some of the tension in his shoulders disappear. His shoulder dropped down, and the insistent feeling of anger started to melt away.

‘Go on little songbird,’ Stan said, ‘why don’t you go play in the garden for a bit? I’ll make you a snack in a few minutes.’

Stan had nicknamed her songbird, because the little girl was always muttering along to every song she heard. And because the three of them had such a different taste in music, she knew lots of song.

She nodded and squeezed him tight one last time, ‘okay papa’, her adorable voice called out.

Without pausing for even a second she jumped of Stan. She always did this, she had so much energy that she always jumped into things headfirst, which was surprising considering she was more of an introvert. There was, of course nothing wrong with this. They just found it funny that she could be so timid, yet so brave at the same time.

Stan could still remember the first time they had met. Emily had been 5 at the time, and she had been really quite.

Bill was the one who had brought adoption up, on the anniversary of Georgie’s disappearance. Stan had been on board right away, without even considering the fact that adopting with three people was not the most easy thing to do. Richie had agreed aswell, even though he seemed the most hesitant out of the three. They had had many conversation, most of them late at night when nobody could sleep or a nightmare woke them up.

They had agreed to adopt, not to foster. It was Stan who made that decision, naturally with the agreement of both Richie and Bill. Stan had the upmost respect for foster parents, but he couldn’t see himself do it, he doesn’t think that he could ever put all of his attention and love into a child, only for them to be taken away again.

After it was decided that they would adopt the next problem arrived. Which two would be the official foster parents? There had been lots of discussions, because at the end of the day, the person who wouldn’t be on the official document of adoption, had legally no say in anything regarding the child. Which meant that it would take a lot of trust and devotion to be the odd parent out.

Eventually it was Richie and Bill who would be the two adopting, and Stan would be the unofficial parent. They all agreed that nothing would be decided without the consent of all three the parents, and so Stan trusted Richie and Bill enough to know that official or not wouldn’t change a thing.

They confirmed their relationship at the adoption center, because their relationship was not something they wanted to keep secret from their baby. The adoption center was understanding and accepting, and was all in all an amazing support system. It had been a subject for discussion

Stan, Bill and Richie didn’t care which age they adopted, nor did they care if it was a boy or girl. Based on their interests and personality traits they were shown a group of children, but for some reason, Emily caught the attention of all three of them right away.

The first meeting with Emily went a lot better that Stan had thought it would. He had been so nervous, especially because Emily would have to be okay with having three parents, but she was the kindest and accepting child that Stan had ever met.

She had looked up at them with her innocent eyes, green like a forest where it has just rained with brown spots, furthering Stan’s point that there was a forest to discover in her eyes. She had smiled a shy smile and waved, hiding part of her face behind her hair. Bill, Richie and Stan instantly fell in love.

During their conversation she kept sneaking glances up at Richie, which Bill took notice off immediately. Bill bumped Richie with his shoulder, and gestured at the child when she did it again, so Richie would notice too. He then crouched down to her height and smiled, opening his mount to make a joke. She beat him too it though, ‘aren’t you that funny and weird man from tv’? Stan had never laughed so hard.

It was in their third time getting together that she finally asked why they were always coming together, all three of them, while all her friends had two parents.

‘It’s cause we all love each other so much, we didn’t want too choose. Our love is so big, that we have to share it with the three of us.’ Bill had explained to her. He had looked almost pale, because at this point the all had become attached to Emily, and they wanted to take her home.

The only reaction Emily had was shrugging her shoulders, her smile not wavering for a second before letting out a timid; ‘okay, that’s so cool’, with wonder in her voice. Stan came to the conclusion the he was never letting this little girl go.

And he had been right, only 3 months later Emily came to live with them.

Her bedroom had a window looking down onto the massive garden they had, full of trees and Birdbaths for Stan. Once they got notice of Emily coming to live with them, they had also placed a bright red swing set.

The color of her walls was purple, which Emily had chosen herself. She had a two persons bed with the band Queens on the covers because, courtesy of Richie, Emily had learned to love the band. She had a bureau, a table for her to draw, a wooden closet, tons of her toys neatly placed in a corner and a bean bag near the window. When she saw her room for the first time, she had started crying. Granted, the room was huge, but still. With both Bill and Richie being famous, and Stan not being short on cash either, they could afford anything the little girl wanted.

Stan had though that Richie would be the one to grant Emily anything she asked for her, but t his surprise, it was actually Bill who couldn’t say no to anything. He suspected that it was because of Georgie, and Emily certainly wasn’t spoiled, but Stan and Richie still told Bill that he needed to set boundaries, because that’s what parents are supposed to do.

After only 5 months she started calling Stan papa, Richie dad and Bill pops. Richie would never admit it, but he started crying when she called him dad for the first time. 

After two years, Stan couldn’t imagine living without Emily at all. He had never been so happy, and he felt like his life was complete. He could tell that Bill and Richie felt the same way. Bill wrote children books sometimes, only for Emily’s eyes, so he could read it to her and see her face light up as he told her he only wrote it for her. Richie would tell her jokes all the time, and play with her in the park and their garden. Stan was the parent that provided the food and practiced with Emily on her hobbies, which included singing. Stan would kill Richie if that video ever made it to the internet.

On the other hand, that didn’t stop days like this from happening. Days where fights happened, and Stan felt like screaming into a pillow.

‘You said that we would never make any decisions without consulting the others first’. Stan’s voice called out harshly, as soon as Emily had left the room.

Bill, who was still holding Stan’s hand squeezed, a silent plea to stop the fight before it even broke out. Stan ignores this, shaking his head quickly.

‘Stan, please don’t make this a big deal, it was just a stupid school outing.’ Richie groaned, his teeth already clenched together. A sure sign to Stan that Richie too was getting worked up.

‘Guys, stop it. You two are adults, don’t turn this into a fight.’ Bill tried, ever the negotiator. He hated fights, they often reminded him of his parents fighting after Georgie’s dead. Stan knows this, but still he can’t just let this go. He still feels the anger burning inside of him, even though he knows that Richie is right, it is just a stupid school outing.

In the beginning of the week Emily had come home with a permission slip, to go to a school outing for an overnight stay-away at the zoo. Stan hadn’t wanted her to go, he used the excuse of it not being clean there, but in reality he wasn’t ready to let his little songbird go for such a long time yet. He knew it was stupid, but he couldn’t help himself.

Richie and Bill had wanted to let her go, but because it had been a busy week they decided to discuss it on Friday. That had been the plan, only Richie had decided to already sign her permission. Emily had been begging to let her go, and Richie had just wanted to her to be happy.

‘it’s not about the stupid outing Richie’. Stan cried out, and despite being composed most of the time, Stan had to fight back the tears threatening to escape.

‘Well then what is it about Stanley’? Richie rebuked with a glare on his face.

‘It’s about the fact that you can make that decision and I don’t’. Stan lamented, while he felt bill’s hand beginning to shake.

In an instant the anger on Richie’s face melted away, replaced by a look of guilt.

‘I know that we made this decision together, but I can’t help but feel like you guys aren’t willing to take my opinion into consideration, I would have let her go you know. I love her too much to let her waste this fun opportunity, but you still let her go without listening to me, and that hurts Rich, I’m just as much her dad as you are.’ Stan heaves without taking a breath.

He can feel Bill shuffle closer and wrap an arm around him, even Richie coming to join him.

‘I’m sorry Stan. You’re right, I should have listened to you. Not to mention that I should have waited for us to make the decision together. I’m really sorry, I just wanted to make her happy s’all.’ Richie mutters, pressing a kiss to Stan’s head.

Stan opens his mouth to respond, but before he can another voice, this time a timid sound calls out.

‘I’m sorry papa, I didn’t mean to make you fight’. Emily is standing in the door opening, clutching her teddy bear in her hands. Her eyes are filled with tears and she’s squeezing the neck of her teddy bear so tight, Stan is worried for a second that she will rip it’s head off.

Stan lifts his head from where he had placed his head on Richie’s shoulder. He instantly feels guilty, a feeling that spreading like a wildfire through his body. Bill opens his arms and sobbing Emily run into them.

‘It’s okay sweetheart this has nothing to do with you. Grownups fight sometimes, doesn’t mean they don’t love each other’. Bill whispers to her, while she tucks away her head in his neck.

‘pops is right songbird, Daddy and I just had a little fight. That is not your fault though, nor should you worry about that.’ Stan replies calmly placing his hand on her back, softly sweeping back and forth.

In the meanwhile Richie gets up again from besides Stan, and crouches down in front of Emily, just like he had done the first time around. He reaches for her hand and kisses the back of it, making Emily giggle like the funniest thing just happened.

‘Let’s do something fun, the three of us. How does that sound baby’? Richie asks, and Stan can’t help but laugh at the exiting nod it entrances from their daughter.


	2. Let her go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stan, Bill and Richie return to Derry along side their daughter. Pennywise kidnaps her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is technically a part two but you don't need to have watched the first one to be able to understand this one.

‘Emily please come back here.’ Stan pleaded, his voice rough as the tears continued to stream down his face like waterfalls. His hand reached out toward his daughter, who doesn’t even so much as glance towards him. ‘Emily’, Stan tries again desperately, his heart is beating in his chest so hard he can hear it, the blood still seeping down his face where he got hit, yet there is still no reaction. A door jingles left of them, it’s Bill and Richie, Stan guesses, but he doesn’t dare to take his eyes of her, afraid that she might disappear if he does so. ‘Stan, Emily open this fucking door’, Richie cries out breathlessly, the pounding on the door getting more insistent with the second. Stan stand up shakily, he has to press his hand against the wall to stay upright, and he takes a hesitant step forward.

As his hand leaves the wall a bloody handprint is left in its place, seemingly taunting Bill, who just manages to glance into the room enough to the handprint. Instantly Bill feels the panic consume him. He can’t see Stan, but he did hear him call out to their daughter, so at least he’s still breathing. Emily however is not responding to any of Stan calls, nor to Richie’s or Bill’s. ‘Stan, Stan, p-p-please talk to us. W-w-what’s happening?’ The stutter makes Bill pause for a second, shocked that for the first time in 20 years, he can’t pronounce his words without stuttering anymore. It’s an indication of the absolute terror consuming his body, but he does his best to suppress it, and after a brief pause, his slamming on the door intensified. The door almost seems to give way to his shoulder slams, and Richie lets out a brief cry, filled with relief, but then the door slams shut once again. ‘Guys, guys fuck please we need help, please help us’, Richie calls out to their friends, but the truth is that neither Stan nor Bill nor Richie has seen their friends since they ran out of the hotel to find Emily. Richie cries out against all hope, because he knows there is no one here to help them.

Stan takes another slow step towards Emily, placing his hand on her shoulder, slightly shaking her. He knows what he’ll see, because Emily has never ever ignored him without reason. Expecting something, and it actually happening however, are two completely different things. When Stan moves in front of her, a sob leaves his lips before he can even think to keep it in. It makes Bill and Richie try even harder to open the door, but still the door stubbornly refuses to open.

Emily’s eyes are wide open, but her irises is completely gone, the forest green disappeared and in its wake is nothing left but white. The expression on her face is one of purse terror. Her mount is dropped open, her eyes unabashed staring forward towards one spot and her body rigid. Stan has only once seen this look on someone’s face, 27 years ago, when it was on Beverly’s. Hesitantly he places his hand against her cheek, pulling away quickly when he notices how cold she really is, before firmly placing his hand at the same spot again, stroking it lovingly.

The tears that had briefly stopped, start back up and this time Stan calls out to Bill and Richie, finally acknowledging their presence. ‘Richie, Bill. I.. IT,’ Stan finally whimpers out, ‘IT has her’.

His words seem to break whatever spell the door was under, as finally the door breaks down. Bill and Richie rush in, but both stop once they see Stan’s face and the body of their daughter standing there as stiff as a board. She’s not levitating, like Bev was, but it seems as that was only done to trick the three boys, to make them think she might be okay, and then rip away that hope.

Stan is sobbing and Bill, ever the leader, takes it upon himself to pull his head towards his chest, to be the rock that hold Stan and Richie together. Stan never lets himself cry in front of people, the fact that he now drops down on his knees, into the disgusting floor of the house on Neibolt street, while he presses his face against Bill’s stomach, is proof that he is completely broken down and wrecked.

Bill is squeezing his eyes shut, like he can’t look at Emily because he knows he will break down if he does. Richie does look at her and the tears well up in his own eyes, but he pushes them back, crying won’t save his daughter. He presses his lips to her forehead gently before turning towards Stan and Bill, grabbing both of their hands.

‘We need the save her, we saved Beverly when we were fucking 13, so now we can definitely save our daughter as 40 year old goddamnit’. His voice cracks as he says it, but he stubbornly refuses to give up.

Bill is already starting to nod his head, ‘rich is right, we can save her, we just need to find IT’. He breaths

Stan looks up from where he was buried in Bill’s stomach, the tears still flowing down his cheeks. ‘What if we can’t? What if we lost her forever?’

‘We haven’t, nothing, not even a m-m-motherfucking clown can keep us from our daughter, let go save her’. Bill whispers as he presses his forehead against Stan’s, while Richie wraps his arms around the both of them. The three of them taking comfort in each other for a second, before standing up with determination. As Stan lifts his head a bloodspot appears on the spot where his head was previously, and Richie shudders. He can still hear the crack from Stan’s head hitting the stairs at pennywise dragged him down the stairs, and into the room where they were currently at.

They had been stupid, they should have waited for their friends to catch up. Instead they were so overcome with worry that as soon as they opened the fortune cookies and matched the sentence, they couldn’t get into Neibolt fast enough. Hope you said goodbye to Emily, because I’m going to kill her, the sentence had said. Bill blames himself, he was the one that suggested them leaving Emily alone in the hotelroom, because he had an uncomfortable feeling that he didn’t want his daughter anywhere near the town. Turns out, Emily should have come with them to the Chinese restaurant. She was left all alone, defenseless and an easy target for IT to take her. Bill shakes his head to clear his thoughts. His daughter needs him now, he can’t waste any time.

‘Pennywise, where the hell are you?’ Bill bellowed. He didn’t have a clue what else to do, how else to save his daughter. Stan’s head snapped in his direction. ‘Stop, Bill, what are you doing’? he hissed, moving his hand to covers Bill mouth. Richie stopped him, all while shaking his head. ‘Let him come, How else or we supposed to help Emily’? He asked.

Stan’s entire body was shaking, and for a second he was worried he would pass out. Then he looked at Emily, and a protective feeling washed over him. He wasn’t going to let some clown take away his family. ‘Hey asshole, where are you?’ his voice didn’t shake as much as Stan had expected, and he prided himself for it dearly.

A painting, located at the far end of the wall their backs were facing, fell down, moment distracting them for a fleeting moment. As they faced away from the teenage girl, IT appeared behind her. The clown grinned, a wide, disturbing smirk that seemed to portray his horrifying pleasure in torturing his victims, waiting for a few moments before Richie turned back around with a whisk. Richie gasped, immediately reaching out for Bill’s arm. Bill and Stan both turned around, and for a split second nobody moved. Then Pennywise began to cackle closing his hand around Emily’s neck, not quite squeezing yet, but putting enough pressure that the three men reached forward without thinking.

Pennywise stepped backwards, dragging a limp Emily with him. ‘No’, Richie called out straight away, ‘please stop, don’t hurt her,’ He begged. He wanted this fucking clown dead, but if him begging on his knees is what would get his daughter back, then he wouldn’t hesitate.

‘Oh, oh, oh now why would I do that? We’re just getting to know each other, isn’t that right songbird’? Pennywise smirked once again, moving Emily’s head up and down, as if she was just agreeing.

Stan tensed, the nickname being the one he gave Emily, the one he always called her. He had no idea how IT knew all of these things, but one thing was for sure, Stan didn’t want his little girl here any longer than he had too.

IT brushed the hair out of her face, taunting the three losers standing before him. Bill clenched his fist together tightly, fighting against every fiber in his body to reach forward, he knew that he couldn’t make any sudden movements, Emily’s life depended on it.

‘You have us, we’re here, you can let her go now. You have us to feed on, you can take revenge on us, just please let her go’, bill spoke with brittle voice. It seemed like his words had to opposite effect, as instead of letting her go, Pennywise tightened his hand around her throat, going as for as to draw blood.

Stan let out an angry cry, ‘let her go’. Pennywise just shook his hand giggling as he did so.

‘she begged so nicely, clearly she didn’t learn that from her parents. She kept asking me to let her go home, to her papa and dad and pops, but you didn’t show up’.

‘You motherfucker, I’m going to fucking kill you’, Richie screeched, but Stan and Bill could hear how effected he was by IT’s words. All of them were.

‘please just, take us. That’s what you wanted right? To get us here so you could kill us? Well we’re here now, so come on, go ahead and kill us.’ Stan spoke, his voice devoid of any emotion. It was the sound that Stan often made before shutting down, or having an anxiety attack.

‘No, I think I might be a bit hungry’, Pennywise let out with a grating laugh, before opening his mount, showing his row of teeth, and without any second of doubt, he bit a piece of Emily’s neck of.

A guttural scream raced through the room, neither of the lovers knowing which one of them made the sound. Emily’s body dropped down on the floor, her eyes returning to normal, but that just made it worse. The blood was dripping from her neck where a huge gaping wound was staring at the three, her eyes staring lifeless into the eyes of her pops, her limbs a in heap on the floor.

Pennywise disappeared as fast as he had appeared, leaving Stan, Bill and Richie to their grief. Richie leaped forward, as if trying to catch her before she fell to the floor, even though she already landed there. He pulled her into his chest, weeping like he had never done before, not even when Henry Bowers had outed him in front of the whole school, or even when his mother had died. His hands tried to cover her wound, but it was to big and the blood kept pouring out like a faucet was turned on.

Stan had tears in his eyes he was desperately trying to blink away, the knowledge of his songbird being dead not registering in his muddled brain. ‘She’s fine, Rich, stop crying she’s fine’. Stan’s voice gets hysterical, his pitch getting louder and louder. He looks to Bill, big strong Bill, their leader, who will surely have the answer to fix this mess.

Bill however, is sobbing. He screams out and Stan can see the moment his knees are too unstable to keep him up, so he falls down. He sinks to his knees, ‘not again, not again’, he moans out over and over, until even that becomes too much. He places his hand on the floor and places his forehead on the floor, and his mouth open in a silent scream. Stan reaches his hands in Bill’s hair, trying to force his head up from the floor. Stan is still not crying, but inside, it feel life his heart is just ripped out.

Richie shuffles closer, still with Emily in his lap, he’s kissing her forehead over and over again, as If somehow that’s gonna make her come back. Stan reaches out with his other hand and tries to pry Richie’s hand away from Emily’s wound, but Richie is not budging, Stan lets his hand rest over his hand anyway.

‘Dad, pops, papa, where the hell are you guys’? A delicate voice calls out. The voice sound sa bit scared, as if the person doesn’t what she’s doing here. Stan, Bill and Richie’s head jump up at the sound. The voice sounds like their daughter, but their daughter is right here, bleeding out as the life has been sucked from her.

Beverly, Ben, Eddie and Mike run in the room their eyes wide and searching, their breathing slowing own just a tat when they see that Bill, Stan and Richie physically alright. Right after they run in, Emily comes running in, her chest slightly heaving. Stan lets out a sob, he doesn’t realize what he’s seeing, just a moment ago he saw Pennywise kill her, but now she’s standing right there, clearly alive. Richie glances back to his arms, but where moments ago Emily’s corpse was lying, there’s nothing. The blood on his hand from her neck wound is not there anymore, and Richie finally pieces the story together. ‘Motherfucker’, he whispers out angrily, pounding his fist on the floor one time, as if to make sure that seeing his daughter alive is reality. His fist stings, but Richie has never felt such a grateful feeling before.

Bill is the first one to move, he jumps up, his arms circling around his daughters small frame, burying his face in her hair. He’s still sobbing, but he ant find any part in him that cares, for he has never been this grateful for something is his life. Stan stands up next, wrapping his arms around both Bill and Emily, placing his hand in her hair to press her even closer to them, and finally Richie moves aswell, standing behind her, his body towering over her as if he can protect her from all the bad in the world with that one movement.

‘oh sweetheart, oh you have no idea how happy we are to see you.’

The other losers look at them in slight distress. They have no idea what the hell happened, but they know that whatever it was, it was truly bad.

‘How, how are you okay? Where were you?’ Stan asks breathlessly while he checks Emily over to make sure she isn’t injured.

‘I thought it was weird that Pennywise would go after Emily right away, she wasn’t scared at all because she didn’t know what was happening, so me and Ben went to the hotel room to make sure she wasn’t just there’. Mike says with a small smile, feeling extremely happy that everyone is fine

‘She was’, Ben added with a small smile.

Stan lets out a deep breath before pressing his lips against Emily’s hair, internally grateful for how she leans into him a little bit.

‘Let’s get her the hell out of this fucking town’, Bill whispers before pulling away slightly, still keeping Emily at arm’s length.

‘Yeah, let’s not traumatize her with showing her the places we fucked when we were teenagers,’ Richie laughs wetly, while wiping away the remaining tears on his face.

‘Dad, gross, I did not want to know that’, Emily cried out, burying her face into her own hands. She’s smiling though, and she keeps smiling until she falls asleep in the car on the way out of Derry, feeling safe in the presence off her fathers.

**Author's Note:**

> I've decided to post my tumblr work on here so if you want to talk follow my tumblr under the same name!


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